Cybercharter school buys former Monongahela Elementary
Photos: Observer-Reporter
The former Monongahela Elementary Center was purchased by Commonwealth Charter Academy, a cybercharter school based in Harrisburg.
Observer-Reporter
Pictured is the former Monongahela Elementary Center, which was purchased by Commonwealth Charter Academy.
The former Monongahela Elementary Center has been sold to Commonwealth Charter Academy (CCA), an online K-12 public cybercharter school that is headquartered in Harrisburg.
CCA purchased the shuttered building at 1200 Chess St. on Oct. 6 for $525,000, according to county property records.
“We do pretty much everything a traditional school district does but it’s in the online environment and it’s tailored for virtual learning,” said Tim Eller, CCA’s senior vice president of outreach and government relations.
Eller said the former Monongahela Elementary Center will serve as a family service center for CCA. There are currently 14 in the state, with locations in Homestead and Seven Fields and another opening soon in Cranberry. The plan is to have 20 across Pennsylvania, so there is a CCA location about 45 minutes from any family in the state.
According to its website, CCA serves more than 22,000 students instructed by more than 1,100 teachers and offers 591 courses as well as field trips.
“We assess where our enrollment is and where the populations are being attracted to CCA,” Eller explained. “When we start seeing a growing enrollment present from a certain region, we like to put up a family service center. It’s about serving families.”
Family service centers serve as a work location for CCA staff members, administrators and teachers, testing locations and a place for families to meet with teachers and administrators.
Eller said the hope is to have the building ready for operations by the fall of 2024.
“It’s kind of fallen down some over the years,” Eller said. “We have to do some renovations and make sure it’s up to code. We have to do some work on the property and get it to be a diamond in the rough.”
The building was constructed in 1930 and was the home of Monongahela High School until Ringgold High School opened in Carroll Township in 1979. It was converted to an elementary center before it was closed in 2011.
Ringgold School District sold the building at auction in August 2014 to Carmen Paliotta Contracting of South Park for $71,500. The company said then it intended to use the building as its headquarters or redevelop it as apartments.
However, the property changed hands again two months later as it was transferred to a limited liability corporation named Venetia Commons, also of South Park, which had owned it since.
After it was closed the building started to deteriorate and had its share of vandalism.
“Anybody occupying that building is a good thing for the neighborhood and for the community,” said Monongahela Councilman Kenneth Kulak. “The building sat idle for so long and it’s become a playground for kids looking to get into trouble. Anybody occupying it and turning the lights on is a positive thing for the community.”
Terry Necciai, executive director of the Monongahela Main Street program, said he lives about one block from the former Monongahela Elementary Center and attended school there when it was Monongahela High School.
“It’s a historic building with plum walls with no bricks missing,” Necciai said. “It’s a steel-framed building with tile in fill and brick facing. I don’t see it falling apart. The building has a gorgeous auditorium with a big gym and a lot of classrooms. It’s going to be tremendously positive.”
Kulak said the former school still can serve a vital role in the community.
“The building is repairable,” he said. “It has a gymnasium that needs some repairs, but it can be functioning again. There’s an auditorium that can be functioning again very easily. I would hope they would use those facilities for our own community’s use.”